			Foreign Correspondent

		      Inside Track On World News
	    By International Syndicated Columnist & Broadcaster
		 Eric Margolis <emargolis@lglobal.com>

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THE CIA'S BUDOIR BLUNDERING
by
Eric Margolis  13 May 1996


PARIS - Her body still trembled from the violent passion of
their love-making.  Yet she still ached for more of this
handsome, dashing French official.

Suddenly, she could no longer bear her terrible secret.  It
seemed to erupt from her heaving breast, that was covered
only by a dainty, pink lace peignoir.

'Cheri,' she gasped, 'I am not, as I told you, the Paris
representative of an American private foundation.'  Her eyes
filled with salty tears.  'I am....a spy for the CIA!'

No, I did not lift this gush from some Gothic romance.  This
absurd scene may have actually occurred last year in Paris,
according to a secret US government report on the CIA's
latest deeply humiliating fiasco.

Thanks to the pillow-talk of an American female agent, the
CIA's Paris station was demolished, four American spies were
expelled from France, the careers of two veteran CIA
operatives were ruined, and US-French relations badly
damaged.

This buffoonery began in 1993 when President Clinton
appointed a new CIA Director, James Woolsey.  Taking is cue
from boss Bill Clinton, Woolsey proclaimed the agency's
chief priority would henceforth be economic affairs.  This,
of course, meant spying on close US allies in Asia and
Europe.

Woolsey launched the campaign, publicly announcing, 'No more
Mr. Nice Guy!'  France was targeted for special attention
because of its unsubtle attempts to steal American
technological secrets, particularly electronics.  France's
foreign spy agency, DGSE, even had the impudence to bug
first class seats on Air France to eavesdrop on American
businessmen whose tongues had been loosened by champagne.

Five CIA agents were assigned to the Paris Station to spy on
French trade negotiators, and to try to defeat French
efforts to spy on American firms.  Combining offensive
spying with defensive counter-spying violates norms of good
intelligence work.  But, as in the case of the
Soviet/Russian mole Aldrich Ames, the CIA violated its own
rules.

At the same time, CIA was under heavy White House and
Congressional pressure to promote more women to key
positions.  Inexperienced female agents and executives were
parachuted into positions above their competence.  The
result: a series of fiascos, scandals and the Paris debacle.

The CIA strike team sent to France was headed by a capable,
veteran agent, Dick Holm, one of the agency's last
swashbuckling 'cowboys.'  The female agent was targeted to
seduce a senior French trade official in what may have been
a classic 'honey trap.'  Or she may simply have been told to
build a relationship with him.  Whatever, this pinhead fell
in love and blabbed she was a CIA agent, which caused French
counter-intelligence to mount a major operation against the
Americans.

This culminated in the highly-publicized expulsion of the
American agents from France in early 1995.  The French were
as angered by the hamhandedness of the operation as its
target.  Their mood, at least as expressed to me, was,
'don't we at least deserve capable spies?  How dare they
send such rank amateurs to Paris?'  Besides, the honey trap
is a specialty of French intelligence, which has a
collection of 8x10 glossies of many world leaders and other
notables in extremely interesting poses.

Amateurism, bureaucratism and trendiness, alas, are all
hallmarks of the post Jimmy Carter 'sensitive' CIA.  The
ineffectual Woolsey has been since canned, but the agency
still stumbles on, perhaps fatally wounded by the treason of
Aldrich Ames, who drove a poisoned Soviet dagger into the
heart of American intelligence.

The CIA may be mainly blind and brain dead, but over in
London the indefatigable Brits are still busy watching
Moscow.  In fact, Britain's foreign spy agency, the Secret
Intelligence Service, or MI6, remains locked in battle with
its old, arch foe, the KGB, now rechristened the Russian
Foreign Intelligence Service.

On Tuesday, Moscow threatened to expel nine British
'diplomats' involved in a major espionage operation.  The
SIS had apparently scored a major coup by penetrating KGB at
a high level.  This fracas marked the lowest point in
British-Russian relations since 1989, when 11 British
diplomats were expelled from Moscow, and a similar number of
Soviet spies under diplomatic cover were booted out of
England.  Tit for tat expulsions also occurred in 1994 and
1995.

The long, bitter intelligence war that has raged between
London and Moscow since the great British agent, Sidney
Reilly, nearly overthrew Lenin, continues without relent. 
The cynical British share none of the Clinton
Administration's giddy, sophomoric infatuation with
Yeltsin's 'democratic' Russia.  SIS now must work double-
time in its most important station, Moscow, to make up for
the melt-down of CIA ops in Russia produced by Aldrich Ames.

In spite of SIS's triumph with its agent, Oleg Gordievsky,
which badly damaged KGB, Britain's spooks still seem
determined to get more revenge for the terrible disasters
caused by the KGB master spies, Philby, Burgess and McLean. 
Recently, a KGB Major General told me he considered British
intelligence a more determined, capable and dangerous threat
than the richer and much larger CIA.

Meanwhile, back at CIA HQ:  'She looked at the Frenchman's
picture.  A long, slow sob welled up in her chest. 'Why, my
darling, why?' she cried.

copyright Eric Margolis 1996

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